The Supreme Court directive has not only given a boost to the demand to scrap section 377, but also sent a message to the society as a whole.
NEW DELHI: The latest Supreme Court directive to the Delhi high court to review the ‘abnormality’ of same sex relationships has given a push of confidence to the hitherto unorganised gay movement in India. Voices against 377, a coalition of 15 NGOs fighting for the legality of homosexuality along with parallel gay rights groups, is now putting together a more effective strategy to get rid of archaic laws surrounding same-sex relationships. An all India meeting to review the entire scenario of gay rights in India is being planned in Mumbai to be held in early March.
Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justices C K Thakker, Justice Lokeshwar Singh Panta and R V Raveendran had earlier asked the Delhi High Court to dispose of the merits of a petition filed by Naz Foundation, an NGO that has been working at granting legality to homosexuality and declaring Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (that makes same sex relationships a punishable offence) unconstitutional.
Forty-two-year-old gay right activist Priya Kaushal (name changed) is relieved that the apex court has finally lent momentum to a cause that she had been fighting for. "When I told my mother about my sexual preference, the first thing she told me is ‘Don’t tell your brothers’. ‘Even the laws are against you,’ she said." Elaborates Priya, "What the law was doing is enshrining the concept of discrimination against people like us who made a personal choice that the society views differently. The Supreme Court’s step has been fantastic and what it does is to allay fears in people like my mother to be able to accept daughters like us."
Gautam Bhan, who took up cudgels on behalf of the gay movement, views this as ‘the first incredibly positive step’. "So far section 377 has tied our hands by criminalising same sex preferences. The social changes are part of a long term conversation but legitimising homosexual relationships will at least solve a lot of day to day problems that we face in terms of employment issues, dealing with marriage pressures, and even daily violence that gays and lesbians suffer in the form of police brutality."
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